The following is an interview with Golden Globe-winning and 4-time Emmy-nominated television writer, producer, and showrunner Maxine Lapiduss (Ellen, Roseanne, Home Improvement, Dharma & Greg) regarding story-based social media marketing platform Storyblaster‘s initiative to support small businesses in these challenging time. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Lapiduss about the mission behind Storyblaster, what their new initiative offers to small businesses to provide support and resources for generating sales, and more!
Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: Storyblaster, your story-based social media marketing platform, recently announced you’re providing Small Business Relief Social Media Content Templates – free of charge – to companies seeking to raise funds, generate sales, and get community support to stay afloat during COVID-19. For those who may be unfamiliar, what is Storyblaster, and what can you share with us about the details of your new initiative?
Maxine Lapiduss: Storyblaster is the only story-based social media management platform created to help people tell and sell their stories and market their businesses online effectively and inexpensively. As small business owners ourselves, we know how challenging it is to become experts at all things necessary to run a successful business–online marketing at the top of the list. But figuring out what to say, where, when, and why on social–to land sales or raise funds or build an engaged following–is another full-time job! So, Storyblaster does it for you. We researched hundreds of thousands of successful social media campaigns and created story templates, pre-filled with winning strategy, content guidance, and example posts so anyone can easily personalize, publish, and promote and get results. Online marketing has become even more critical for business survival during Covid-19, so we wanted to do what we could to help as many Small Businesses as possible generate sales or raise funds on their own website or any crowdfunding platform including GoFundMe.
BD: What kinds of templates are available through Storyblaster, and how can business owners best access them through the site?
ML: Our templates are broken down by what you want to achieve with five categorizes so far: Increase Sales (for products, services, and events), Build Audiences (for products/businesses, creative works, community initiatives/local businesses, and nonprofits), Crowdfund (for products, creative works, community initiatives/local businesses), and Fundraise (for nonprofit orgs). All can be found at www.storyblaster.com/templates and of course our FREE Small Business Relief Social Media Content Template can be directly accessed here.
BD: How has Storyblaster been impacted by these challenging times, and what message do you hope to share with your users, colleagues, and employees?
ML: Like so many, we’ve had to shutter our office, let most of our team go, and are doing what we can to be additive during this time–to contribute and help small businesses stay afloat. Our message is that we all have unique stories to tell and sharing them on social media in ways that uplift, support, inspire, and empower is more important now than ever. Being conscious, human, authentic, and really listening to and respecting each other will go a long way.
BD: Are there other developments that you have in the works at Storyblaster for 2020?
ML: We’re always looking at what we can do better and listening to our users to create new templates and release new features. But right now, as we all really don’t know what the future is even going to look like, we’re focusing on the present and doing what we can to get the Small Business Relief Social Media Content Template to all those who can benefit from it.
BD: Lastly, what would you like to tell readers who want to learn more about Storyblaster and your work?
ML: We are award-winning storytellers, creatives, and entrepreneurs who always have had to promote our own projects and created Storyblaster to bring the power and expertise of top digital marketing agencies to the people at an affordable price with less stress and more success. Go to www.storyblaster.com to watch a video of how it works and see all our offerings. And for more about us and how fancy we are, you can check out the About Page.
We just wish everyone well and want to help as many folks as possible stay positive, resourceful, and share their stories and needs at this time. It’s often magical what can happen when you do.
*Photo (above): Hillary Carlip and Maxine Lapiduss – Storyblaster co-founders
